Sony will soon start offering in Japan a digital notepad designed for university students.

The prototype device has a 13.3-inch (1600 x 1200 pixels), flexible E Ink display - the size of an A4 paper - and has been designed to take notes using the provided digital pen. It can display 16 shades of gray.

Other features include IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity (future update), 4GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, a PDF reader and a battery life of about three weeks on a single charge.

Weighting is 358g and just 6.8mm thick, it can be easily carried into a handbag.

Sony has plans to carry out demonstrations of the new device in Japanese universities starting from this fall.